


Sand Valhallas > Sand Castles

by consciousness_streaming



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 17:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/consciousness_streaming/pseuds/consciousness_streaming
Summary: Dan and Phil walking on a beach in Florida, holding hands in public for the first time. Unbelievable fluff.





	Sand Valhallas > Sand Castles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phantasticphun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantasticphun/gifts).



> To my requester, I hope this is somewhere in the vicinity of what you envisioned. Fluff is not my normal cup of tea but I enjoyed the challenge. Happy holidays!

The beach is empty, no one wanting to watch the sunset with the threat of rain still hanging over their heads. The clouds glimmer in the sky and the crystals on the ocean glitter with the push and pull of the waves. The sound of those crashing waves roars in Dan’s ears and calms him. 

It’s cold enough under the fading sun and crisp wind that he shivers. Next to him, Phil notices and walks closer, still in step, warming him with his body heat. 

Maybe it’s the golden sun falling across Phil’s face. Or maybe it’s the breeze flirting with his quiff, maybe the surety of his fingers intertwined with Dan’s—all Dan knows is that he’s never been more in love with Phil than at this moment. He can’t fight the smile forming on his face.

They continue along the beach, shoes left at the vacation house with Phil’s family. They’re Dan’s family too in many ways. He thinks of Martyn as a brother, a business partner, a friend, someone who loves someone he loves and really that’s what matters at the end of the day. He has a kinship with Cornelia, adopted along with him into the Lester fold, someone to share a look across a Lester-dominated room, someone to geek out with over music. He thinks of Nigel and Kathryn and is overwhelmed with their love and welcoming, he’s never felt so beloved and wanted than in their home. 

They made the right decision, Dan thinks, feeling Phil give his fingers a light squeeze. They didn’t post a video or anything, but they decided together to slowly start letting their love show in public. For so many years, they hid it away not wanting their relationship to be the only thing people subscribed for—not wanting their relationship to define their videos and creativity. 

Dan walks down a beach in Florida, holding hands with the love of his life for the first time in public. And he cries.

“Why are you crying,” Phil stops walking and pulls Dan around to face him. There’s no sense of urgency in his voice, Dan’s been known to cry about the smallest of things. 

“I’m just so glad to be out here, holding your hand.” Dan raises their clenched hands and kisses the back of Phil’s right hand. “Where anyone can see us.”

“I know we’re not denying anything or holding ourselves back anymore, but there’s literally no one out here to see us,” Phil’s eyes twinkle with affection.

“But there could be,” Dan says and pulls Phil to start walking with him again. 

Slowly the sun sinks into the ocean and Phil swears he sees the flash of green as it hits the sea. Dan lovingly rolls his eyes. They’re far from the house now, coming up on the boardwalk. Last night, they made this same trek and turned around right about now. Phil slows to a stop, clearly starting to head back. Something in Dan snaps. He doesn’t move to follow Phil and it takes Phil just long enough to trip over his own feet to notice.

“Dan?” He says uncertainly. 

“C’mon,” Dan pulls Phil back towards him and nods his head towards the boardwalk, “Let me buy you an ice cream.”

He watches Phil’s eyes dart towards the busy platform and back and notes the exact micro second Phil catches on. Dan squeezes Phil’s hand again. They’ve never been much for holding hands, by necessity, but Dan could get used to the feeling of Phil’s hand in his.

“Are you sure,” Phil asks, his voice careful. And Dan knows why—he’s always been the stalwart. It’s always been Dan who held them back, who wanted the privacy, the space. But Dan’s sick of that now. He’s tired of skirting around questions and being gender neutral about things, hinting at his queerness. He’s proud of Phil, he’s proud to be with Phil in every way—business partners, best friends, lovers, monopoly nemesises, every way.

Dan nods, trying to show he’s not afraid. After a decade of comments online and years of therapy, it’s time and he’s ready. It doesn’t matter if the world sees him hold Phil’s hand. He honestly wants them to see and have this be done and behind him already. There’s such a long history of them on the internet, he’s ready for the revelation of their relationship to be old news. 

“Butterscotch okay?”

“Better than Superman,” Phil sets off towards the boardwalk and Dan follows closely behind.

 

 

They hold hands until the last possible second at the ice cream parlor. Dan pays for their cones in now familiar American notes and then they head off to take in the atmosphere. There are several money trap games on this pier in Florida, all manned by bored teenagers. Dan catches the eye of a girl running the darts game and spots the recognition in her eyes. 

He nudges Phil, “fancy a game of darts?”

“You’re going down, Howell.” Phil’s eyes narrow.

“In your dreams, Lester.”

The girl fumbles the darts in her hand and greets them like old friends. 

“How much for a game,” Dan asks her, and gives Phil a nudge, “I’ve got to take him down.”

“Hey!” Phil pouts but is saved by their new friend.

“We’ll see about that, Dan. He’s the king of Dan versus Phil, you know,” she smiles at Phil who nods exuberantly.

“Exactly right, and as the king there’s no way you’ll beat me.”

“But this is darts, Phil. I always kick your ass at darts.”

Their new friend interjects again and Dan sees that she’s firmly a Phil fan, “just like halo 3 and Mario Kart 8?”

Phil coughs a laugh.

“Cheeky,” Dan says, handing over $5 in notes.

Dan wins by a large margin and Phil graciously bows to him in the new inside joke they started since crowning Phil king. Phil offers to take a picture with Amanda who is trying so hard to appear cool. 

As they leave the darts station, Dan waves to Amanda and then grabs Phil’s hand. He watches Amanda’s eyes go round with surprise and winks at her. He inwardly congratulates himself as he sees her smile stretch wide across her face. One down, four million or so to go.

 

 

Phil’s social anxiety leads them back shortly to the beach, their bellies as full as their hearts and a small stuffed teddy under Phil’s arm. They still have a mile walk back to the beach house, but neither of them are in a hurry. Dan knows when they return, Martyn will talk them into playing a round of some board game. They’ll have a great time, he knows, but he feels so happy right now and he doesn’t want to let the feeling go, doesn’t want to share it more than he has already.

Dan’s a selfish man at his core, he’s never pretended otherwise. He wants Phil to himself tonight, he can share him again later. For now, in this quiet moment, he wants to glow in Phil’s company.

Phil stops abruptly, shocking Dan out of his head, and picks up a seashell. Dan’s not entirely sure how he even spotted it in the dark. They’ve been walking by the light of the full moon, but the sand under their feet all looks like the same bland blob in his eyes.

“Look,” Phil says, brandishing the sea shell for Dan to examine, “look how weird this one looks.”

Sure enough, Dan thinks with so much affection he might barf out rainbows, Phil has found the strangest looking seashell in existence. 

“How did you even see that,” he takes the seashell out of Phil’s hand to squint at it from closer up. He can really only make out the wonky shape, but something tells him it’s even more special than that. Phil has a sixth sense for finding strange things, or more like attracting strange things to himself. Dan proudly counts himself as the greatest example of this super power.

“I dunno, I just looked down and there it was,” Phil leans over Dan’s shoulder to look at the shell as well. “I think that bit there looks like Thor, but with an ax instead of a hammer.”

Dan surprises himself with the giggles that burst out of his chest, “That’s off-brand, mate.”

Phil shrugs, “I reckon it belongs in sand Valhalla.”

“Is that your version of a sand castle? Sand Valhalla?”

“Why would you make a regular sand castle when you can make Valhalla?”

Dan doesn’t bother arguing, his face hurts too much from smiling. He drops to the sandy beach, knowing it’s going to take forever to get the sand out of his black trousers, but the shocked look on Phil’s face is worth it.

“Well?” He says when Phil doesn’t immediately catch on, “Sand Valhalla isn’t going to make itself, you know.”

“But we don’t even have a shovel,” Phil careful sits beside him, amusement written into every line on his face.

“What are these, then?” Dan raises his hands up, though carefully still holding the seashell.

Phil nods and then his face morphs into his project management face. Dan loves this face. He truly loves all of Phil’s faces, but this one does something for him deep down. He loves watching Phil take charge of a situation. It’s manly and sexy and something about it hits a special box inside Dan that he doesn’t examine very often. Dan shakes his head, like he can wrench the thoughts out of his mind and focuses on the task.

Under Phil’s supervision, they build the world’s most beautiful sand Valhalla. In all fairness, Dan thinks, it only deserves that epithet because it’s probably the world’s only sand Valhalla. Which also, in a way, makes it the ugliest sand Valhalla. Dan very courteously keeps that thought to himself.

When Phil determines they’re done, he places the sea shell in the place of honor at the front of the structure. He makes Dan hold his phone light on it while he takes a picture. The picture, predictably, turns out horribly in the darkness and Dan’s half way glad that it did. This won’t be instagram worthy and so it’ll stay a memory for them alone. Who knows, maybe they’ll talk about this in a live show, or maybe it’ll stay a fun memory for them. Dan’s good with it either way. 

“Ready to keep walking,” Phil asks, putting out a hand to help pull Dan up off the beach.

Dan covertly picks the shell off the Valhalla and puts it in his pocket. It’ll make a nice keepsake of this vacation.

He has all kinds of things from over the years with Phil—ticket stubs to movies they saw together, a sweet note Phil left on the coffee table when he went out of town, things outside of their two world tours together, outside of their shared jobs, things that any normal couple would keep to remember their relationship.

Dan hoards them. He’s stupidly sentimental, he knows, but one day he’ll show these to their kids.

Phil doesn’t let his hand go as he lifts him to his feet. He brushes the seat of Dan’s trousers off with the other hand and Dan honest to God blushes. 

“C’mon,” Dan whispers, “this way I think.”

Phil walks along beside him, chatting amiably about the sand Valhalla. He doesn’t need Dan to talk back and Dan enjoys hearing Phil’s stream of consciousness. He could never tire of learning more about him.

“Wow, it sure cleared up, huh,” Phil points their combined hands up towards the sky.

“Yeah, you can see all the stars now,” Dan looks up in awe. In London you can’t see the stars for shit. Even here, in a busy beach town in the United States, they aren’t like he’s seen in pictures, but it’s still impressive. 

Suddenly, a light flashes impressively fast across the sky.

“Did you see that, Phil?”

Phil’s voice rises in excitement, “Yeah, oh my god. I’ve never seen a shooting star in person before. Quick, Dan, make a wish!”

Dan squeezes Phil’s hand, “Why would I need to wish for anything else? I’ve got all I’ve ever wanted right here.”

“Sap,” Phil says, but he looks pleased, “I love you too.”

“C’mon,” Dan starts pulling Phil down the beach again, “let’s get back to our family.”


End file.
